The Australian Communications and Media Authority is investigating the complaint about a two-partFour Corners program reported by Sarah Ferguson. The 36-page complaint was dismissed by the ABC last month after a 59-day process.
ABC journalist Sarah Ferguson presented Fox and the Big Lie,the program that frustrated executives at the American cable network.Supplied
“The ACMA has received a complaint from Fox News Media about the Four Corners broadcast on 23 and 30 August 2021 and has commenced an investigation,” a spokesperson said. Fox News and the ABC were approached for comment.
Fox News sent a formal complaint to ABC’s chair Ita Buttrose and ABC managing director David Anderson in September,arguing the program,which focused on the American cable TV network’s coverage of former US president Donald Trump and its role in the 2020 US election,was an attack on Fox News.
The letter asked for a response and a correction to concerns about the two episodes within 14 days. It alleged the ABC has breached its code of practice and the federal government’s standards for the national broadcasters through its anti-Fox News bias and claimed the ABC was provided with all relevant background information by Fox News,but it did not change the outcome of the story.
The program also received criticism from
“The episodes flout the letter and spirit of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Code of Practice ... and run afoul of the federal parliament’s primary standards for the ABC,” the letter said.
“First,and most basically,the episodes abandoned all semblance of impartiality and instead presented a one-sided political polemic against Fox News,the most-watched cable news organisation in the United States for nearly two decades. The patent bias,second,led to programs riddled with basic factual errors,uncorrected even after Fox News presented contrary evidence. Those errors,third,stemmed from the ABC’s abject failure to abide by basic journalistic procedures.”
Complaints about the ABC’s coverage are currently handled internally by its audience and consumer affairs division,which is required to respond within 60 days. Complainants who are dissatisfied with the outcome can refer the complaint to the ACMA. The ACMA then decides whether it wants to investigate the matter.
The ABC’s internal complaints’ division informed the Murdoch-controlled cable network it had not upheld any of their concerns in early November – 59 days after the complaint was filed. Fox News,which had,has been assessing its options.
The decision to take the complaint to the watchdog will add to long-running tensions between Australia’s public broadcaster and media outlets controlled by the Murdoch family,which also include local newspapersThe Australian,The Daily Telegraph andThe Herald Sun.
Fox News’ appeal to the watchdog comes as the ABC progresses with a review of for the first time in 12 years. Former Commonwealth and NSW Ombudsman Professor John McMillan and former SBS,Seven and Ten news boss Jim Carroll are conducting the review,which is expected to hand down its findings in March next year.
The review was commissioned by Ms Buttrose after scrutiny from federal and state politicians about how the broadcaster’s internal division effectively reviews complaints about programs such as theGhost Train series into the 1979 Luna Park tragedy.
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